The Countdown!

This coming weekend is THE busiest weekend of the month, heck probably of the year. On Thurs, relatives start arriving for the Sunday wedding, Friday more arrive and Sat the rest of them arrive - including my Mom who is being released from the rehab in the morning and then coming down with my older brother & sister-in-law. We'll get her settled in as best we can in the midst of the all the wedding hoopla. Poor woman, I hope she's napping as much as she can all this week, we're having 40 for dinner Sat night!

Today we go have the final fitting of the dress and pick it up and I am sure Sara has plans for me to be doing something every day for the rest of the week. Somewhere in there I need to get my haircut & go to the store and teach classes . . . .

Saturday is also the rehearsal breakfast and the breakfast. Family dinner Saturday night - first time my children have ever had all their aunts and uncles in one place since most live in Minnesota with the rest in Massachusetts and Florida. Then Sunday morning I plan on doing absolutely NOTHING no matter what Sara says - my mom and I will be napping!

We've discovered that on Sunday the Jets game is at 1:30 and the Minnesota Vikings play at 8pm for playoff spots. Since we live in NJ and remember I said most of the relatives live in Minnesota - I am sure there will be a well worn path between the reception hall, where I've banned TVs, to the TV in the bar!

By Monday morning, I'll be ready for a vacation!

What good is a thumb?

Plenty I've discovered. I'm right handed & I've long said my left hand is pretty much there for balance. I never thought I did much with it.

Like many of you, I'm a quilter, knitter, crafter & I'm always doing something with my hands. And also like many of you, I've also had hand "problems" for a number of years that I've managed to ignore thinking they'd go away. Then my left thumb and wrist started to bother me - what the heck? I'm right handed, why the left? So I went into my usual routine of ignoring it, then when that didn't work, babying it and then finally digging out the carpel tunnel brace and wearing that. Nope, self doctorinaztion wasn't working so the day before Thanksgiving I took myself off to the hand specialist thinking he would do some magic and FIX IT!

Let me just say that I don't hate going to the doctors, I just don't like it. They're NEVER on time, it's expensive and most times I come out wondering why the heck I bothered since whatever was wrong, is pretty much still wrong . . . So I didn't hold out much hope that I would come out of the hand surgeon miracuously cured, even though I was hoping it would be so.

I did leave with a diagnosis of tendonitis, arthritis, a bone spur and no cartilage left between the bones in the base joint of my thumb. After he mentioned surgery and taking out that bone & replacing it with something I didn't hear because at that point his lips were moving but nothing he was said after removing the bone was registering in my brain that had basically stalled. I left his office with orders to wear an immobilizer and come back in three weeks. He wanted to give me a cortisone shot but the horror of the first one I recieved in my elbow about 8 years ago managed to claw it's way to the front of my brain and I demured.

Yes Virginia, you do use that thumb for MUCH more than you think you do!

Now it's after the holidays and my wrist is bothering me so much I'm wearing the thumb brace AND the carpel tunnel brace on the same hand - it's SO ATTRACTIVE! So Wednesday I take myself back to the hand specialist determined to get to the bottom of why my hand/wrist hurts and how to fix it.

He looks at my thumb - still swollen, bone spur still there, tendonitis, arthritis - yup a mess. Then he looks at my wrist. I explain what's going on. He says it's one of three tendons and he'll press on them until he hits the right one. Third one is a charm & I scrape myself off the ceiling in enough pain to agree to a cortisone shot to try to avoid surgery. EEEEOOOOOOWWWWWW!

This time I find myself in the car, in the same brace, in more pain and I've paid for the experience. Hmmm, did I mention I don't like going to doctors???

A friend has suggested getting out my Glitzer Wand and crystals to decorate the braces for the wedding. I'll take pictures.

I'm worth 26 cents!

As I was working on the shop hop sample the other morning, I decided that I really need to bring home new pins. The ones I have in my pincushion, well let's just say they're a ragtag assortment that have seen better days. Then I spent more than a few minutes trying to find my seam ripper, I still haven't found it. That made me look around at my sewing supplies and I discovered that I really have a ragtag assortment of everything. I need new rotary blades, in all three rotary cutters, my cutting mat is probably why I need new blades & one of my rulers is missing half it's lines.

Since I own a quilt shop, working with sub-par supplies is ridiculous and can be directly related to a few things - one I'm cheap, two I forget to bring the stuff home and three, I'm like practically every other sewer out there, I'd rather spend the money on fabric.

Mentally lecturing myself that good basic supplies is not a luxury but a necessity to the ease of the sewing process, I wondered just how much it would cost to restock the basics. $20? $50? $75? $100?

Pins $5.50 - I like the glass head pins since they're easier to grab & these have a good sized ball on the head - not too large but not too small for these no longer quite nimble fingers. Plus, these are very find & I can sew over them if I have to. Yes, I know, I know, you're not supposed to sew over pins but sometimes a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

A new rotary mat - $45. I have a large cutting surface so I like the large Olfa or Omnigid mats. They last the longest.

Seam Ripper $4.25. This is my absolute favorite seam ripper! There are cheaper ones, but none better. It has a sharp point that's not too fat and a handle that is easy to grip and won't roll off your sewing table.

New blades - $8. I admit I buy the 5 pack at $32. It drives me crazy to not have a new one on hand & have those evenly spaced little threads still attached after every cut. With three rotary cutters all doing that, you would think I'd have brought home a new pack!

Ruler - $12.99 - I like the Cut For A Cure rulers and the 7x14" is one of my favorites. The pink and green lines are a little freaky until you put the ruler onto fabric & you can actually see the lines! I also like that they read left to right & right to left.

I need a small pair of scissors too. Mine have disapeared & I think they followed the same path as the last pair - somehow they fell into the trash unnoticed and took that one way road to the dump. We have pretty floral ones for $4.99.

So how much do I have to spend to make my sewing life easier? $80.73 + tax, $106.73 if I go hole hog & get the 5 pack of blades. I sew about 8 hours a week x 52 weeks a year = 416 hours per year. (I'm sure it's more than that but we'll go with the average.) $106.72 divided by 416 = .26 cents.

I'm worth .26 cents. My New Year's Resolution is to bring all this stuff home today so I can celebrate the New Year's Day sewing & enjoy every minute of it!

Merry Christmas!

SNOW!

I pooh poohed the idea of snow all day Friday - the ocean is too warm, we're going to get a mess of rain/sleet/ice, the usual for the Jersey Shore. Wrong. This is why we were closed Sat and Sunday.








This was Saturday morning about 10am














This was Sunday morning about 6am.


The photo doesn't show it but it was still snowing.












We're shoveled out this morning - necessary parts, the back deck door isn't necessary so this is the result. It will look like this till it melts!

And we're thanking our lucky stars we bought a snowblower a few years ago!

It's definitely going to be a white Christmas.

The dreaded MALL

It's the week before Christmas & what is every sane person doing who celebrates Christmas? Christmas stuff right? Of course that's not what I'm doing. That doesn't mean I'm ready for Christmas mind you, oh no - not even close to ready! But yesterday I'm at the MALL, the MALL,a week before Christmas! You have to be crazy or desperate to go to the MALL the week before Christmas. Yes, that certifies my craziness. And I'm not at the MALL to just Christmas shop - on no, I'm at the mall looking for the dreaded mother of the bride (MOB) dress. Shoot me now please.

Did I ever mention I hate to shop? Unless it's for fabric or something quilt related, I'm the shopper that retailers hate. I go in, find what I want, pay for it & leave (they like the paying for it part!). Jim, James M, Sara & even Jeremy to some extent LOVE to shop. They like to look at everything, touch most of it & for some unknown reason, like the whole experience. I am the misfit of my family. Shopping is just not an enjoyable experience for me, I'm hot, can't find what I want, the bags are heavy, there's no room in the store aisle to move, there's too many people . . . . . I admit, I tend to whine in a MALL.

So on Wednesday when I told my loving husband we had to go to the MALL, he reached over & felt my forehead. Funny man - NOT. The rehab my Mom is in now is cooler than the one in Salem and since she's spent the last 10 winters in Florida with my brother, she doesn't have many warmer clothes. So, proving the depth of my love for my Mom - who also hates to shop mind you - off we went yesterday to look for warmer clothes for Mom AND a MOB's dress for me.

First off all - who makes these MOB dresses???? They all go from teenagerish to matronly with no stops in between. And BTW? I don't want to wear a gown that rustles when I walk or clings like SaranWrap, has a beaded jacket that weights 40 pounds, is stiff as a board or requires midevil armor for me to fit into. I will admit to frantically searching the internet for something that could be mailed & did order a jacket & camisole. Very nice but somehow I think I need a bottom of some sort to go with it.

In the midst of all that internet shopping, I decided that I was going to be comfortable at Sara's wedding & wear the sort of pants that look like a long skirt when you're standing still. That brought about quite a bit of eye rolling from the bride . . . I was willing to change my mind if I found a gown that met the comfortable requirements and didn't show more cleavage than I was used to. Sara's colors are burgundy & black, she can't dictate what I wear but she can dictate the colors, so the top I bought is burgundy and how hard could it be to find black, dressy, looks like a skirt when you're standing still pants be???? Five stores & SIX HOURS later I had them, clothes for my Mom, presents for the kids and we were out of there.

I'm not going back, I don't care what anyone says. My outfit covers me in all the right places, is the required colors and I'll accessorize with pearls.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Happy Birthday Carol Doak!

Carol Doak was here for two days of classes & celebrated her birthday with us.

During lunch Carol had show & tell from her books. Amazing!

Everyone had a great time! Thanks Carol!